Marketa Vondrousova has won her first career's Grand Slam title after defeating Ons Jabeur in today's final match of Wimbledon Championships 2023. Vondrousova needed just 80 minutes of play to perform an upset over the Tunisian, who lost the second consecutive final in SW19. The Czech won by 6-4 6-4 to become the first ever unseeded woman, who managed to win the Wimbledon's title.
Jabeur was considered as a pre-match favorite, being rated with an odd 1.46 to win the final's clash. The opening games in this match were quite erratic from both the finalists, but it was the current world's number 6 who started from the front foot. Jabeur was putting pressure in every of first Vondrousova's service games, which resulted with 7 breakpoints created and leading by 4-2 on the scoreline. Then, the play of Jabeur has collapsed, as the Tunisian started to commit multiple unforced errors. Vondrousova was playing wisely, realising the gameplan by not taking too much risk and being effective enough to completely dominate the remainder of first set. The Czech 16 out of 18 points since being 2-4 down and surprisingly came back to clinch the opening set.
Vondrousova raises up to the occasion
The Czech has seemingly followed the blow after start of second set, gaining another break and extending the series of won games up to 5. Vondrousova was on a good path to extend it in 2nd game, while being 40-0 up during own serve. Jabeur did not give up despite looking quite lost on the court and kept pushing during the rallies, which resulted in surprising break back in this game and winning two following games to move up into 3-1 lead. Despite this, Vondrousova regrouped herself after a little slump and broke her opponent to come back level on serve in 5th game. Jabeur was serving under quite a pressure in 9th game, within a score 4-4. The margin of error for the Tunisian who lost first set was really low at this point and the pre-match favorite has seemingly not handle this well enough, as she got broken after commiting 4 unforced errors in own service game. Vondrousova has immediately faced the biggest opportunity in her career to serve for becoming the Wimbledon champion and did it in style, which made the surprise a reality.
The match was definitely not the best tennis spectacle as expected to be in a Grand Slam's final. Marketa Vondrousova has won the big battle of nerves, which was reflected in post-match stats. Ons Jabeur was trying to be the one who takes initiative on court, as she managed to score 25 winners, but the Tunisian was too erratic to take up the title fight sufficiently. Jabeur has commited 31 unforced errors, being especially vulnerable during the decisive moments of both sets played. The Czech was playing cautiously, not firing up the shots too often, as she scored just 10 winners, but commited almost twice less errors than her opponent - 13.
Ranking movements
The new Wimbledon champion obviously lifts up in the WTA rankings. Marketa Vondrousova advances into top 10 for the first time in career, moving up into 10th place up, moving up from being ranked 42th before the Championships. Ons Jabeur stays in the position of world's number 6. Elina Svitolina is the player who gains the most places in top areas of the ranking, as the Ukrainian advances into 27th place, just 3 months after coming back into competition from the maternity break. The Ukrainian gains 49 positions during the fortnight in London. The other players, who rised up significantly are Mirra Andreeva and Sofia Kenin. The 16 years-old youngster advances into 65th place after gaining 37 positions. This means, that she will not need to play in the upcoming Grand Slam qualies for the US Open. Kenin comes back into top 100 after 16 months. The 2020 Australian Open champion gains more than 30 places to be placed at least 95th, which also gives her a direct entrance into main draw of the upcoming Grand Slam in New York.
Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek are already sure to be participants of the WTA Finals at the end of the season. The Belarusian strenghtened her lead in WTA Race list by reaching out the semifinals, being 780 points ahead of the Pole, who managed to keep the spot of the world's number one in the official rankings. Elena Rybakina stays in 3rd, with almost 2000 points gap behind her. Marketa Vondrousova and Ons Jabeur capitalise on their run in SW19 to move up into 5th and 6th place, just behind Jessica Pegula, having a good opportunity to advance into WTA Finals as well. Two other Czechs - Petra Kvitova and Karolina Muchova, complement the top 8, which is virtually on the best road to the final tournament of the season, but the gaps behind them are close and fight for the spots in year end closing will be surely tight and intense till the latest moments of 2023.
